Recently, while browsing the Canon webpage, I stumbled upon the new Canon PowerShot SX50 IS. Here some of the changes over the SX40 HS:- Guess what? It shoots RAW now! Yay!- The screen is slightly larger, from 2.7 in to 2.8 in.- Focal length increased from 24-840mm to 24-1200mm (35mm equivalent)- The ability to focus at 0 cm when at 24mm is gone, now it changed to 5cm (not that bad though)- Minimum focusing distance at maximum focal length slightly improved from 1.4 m to 1.3 m- Screen resolution improved from 320k dots to 461k dots.- Maximum apertures reduced from f/2.7 @wide end and f/5.8 @tele end to f/3.4 @wide end and f/6.5 @tele end (bad choice for Canon, IMHO )- Fastest shutter speed reduced from 1/3200 to 1/2000 (also bad move from Canon, IMHO)- Maximum ISO increased to 6400 ISO in all modes.- Exposure compensation increased from +/-2 EV to +/-3 EV- Continuous shooting reduced from 2.4 fps to 2.2 fps (normal mode)- Continuous shooting increased from 10.3 fps to 13 fps in High-burst HQ mode, also max number of shots increased from 8 to 10.

EDIT: I forgot a couple things: the weight and size was slightly reduced and battery consumption was theoretically reduced according to Canon.

Doesn't look too good, looks like many things were degraded, but the RAW shooting..... oh my, that just sounds awesome

Looks like an awesome Canon to me. And as they traditionally do, (for me) they come nowhere close the Panasonic brothers (FZ200). The RAW is very nice though, and the extra reach... well, it's about marketing I guess. I find 320mm (35mm eq.) to be more and more than sufficient, and a decade ago it was only the very pros who had 600mm or 800mm prime lenses. Does that mean that everybody now needs so many mms? I dont see it.

Looks like an awesome Canon to me. And as they traditionally do, (for me) they come nowhere close the Panasonic brothers (FZ200).

You're right about that, I think Panasonic has had the edge on superzoom cameras and there seems no one can beat them.

Also, the extra focal length actually would be nice for me because I like photographing wildlife and I've been finding myself in various occasions that I can't quite reach the subject without approaching it too much and scaring it. My camera is the SX20 IS and it's maximum focal length is 540mm by the way.

Well - my first Canon was the Powershot SX10 IS, which is very similar to the SX20 IS.Yeah. I have to say I really like that zoom range and it took some time until I had the 100-400mm, which could beat the 540mm of the SX10 when mounted on a crop frame camera (400mm x1.6 = 640mm).Now the Powershot SX50 has a 50x zoom. Absolutely wow. 1200mm are great. RAW? Haven't even read about that but it's very nice as well.

I could play a bit with that camera on the photokina and well... it has some nice features, is ugly like hell and pretty impressive. I like it. Well... Still I guess I won't buy one.

Now the question is if it will retain quality at such a long focal length and if with such a small aperture (f/6.5) it will be able to get nice shutter speeds and also let's hope IS can compensate so we can get sharp shots. We'll see